We divided the survey respondents into two groups, overperformers and underperformers, on the basis of their companies’ three-year revenue growth relative to their competitors’. We then compared those two groups’ strategies, structures, and capabilities. Some of what we found should come as no surprise: Companies that are sophisticated in their use of data grow faster, for instance. Nevertheless, the research shed new light on the constellation of brand attributes required for superior marketing performance and on the nature of the organizations that achieve it. It’s clear that “marketing” is no longer a discrete entity (and woe to the company whose marketing is still siloed) but now extends throughout the firm, tapping virtually every function. And while the titles, roles, and responsibilities of marketing leaders vary widely among companies and industries, the challenges they face—and what they must do to succeed—are deeply similar.

Solve this equation: 1 vanilla layer with pineapple filling + 1 chocolate layer with coconut cream + 1 red velvet layer with cream cheese = ???. Answer: McKellar and Svesloky’s wedding cake! “We wanted something for everyone, and the pineapple and coconut kept it faithful to our luau-themed reception,” says the former Wonder Years star and math-education advocate about the couple’s November 22 wedding on a Kauai, Hawaii, beach. How did the buttercream-frosted cake taste? As McKellar posted on Twitter, “It was yummy.”
Content marketing also provides additional benefits in that it supports other digital marketing channels. It provides additional content for social media marketing and contributes to SEO efforts by generating natural inbound links and building up good content on your website that gets found in search engines. In fact, for many companies the bulk of their SEO efforts should be focused on content marketing.

We’re glad the actress and her political-activist fiancé didn’t elope as originally planned – because then she and Montilio’s Baking Company of Boston would never have designed this gorgeous four-tiered cake! Feeding about 250 guests, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Larry David, who attended the couple’s August 2 nuptials at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, the pale pink confection featured white cake with white buttercream and hand-painted blue flowers etched in gold.

Read Joe Pulizzi's excellent book Epic Content Marketing. I started reading it after I wrote this post and it confirmed and expanded what I already knew about content marketing, with much more detail than I could ever go into here. Something Pulizzi emphasizes which I originally left out was the importance of focusing on producing mobile-friendly content, since smartphones are becoming the dominant way in which most of our customers access content. Also read Michael Hyatt's Platform, mentioned above. Frequent websites like those of Content Marketing Institute, Ragan, Copyblogger, Michael Hyatt, and Gary Vaynerchuk and sign up for their email newsletters. It won't take you long to become not just familiar with content marketing, but an expert.

On July 7, 1928, a bakery in Chillicothe, Missouri introduced pre-cut bread using the automatic bread-slicing machine, invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder. While the bread initially failed to sell, due to its "sloppy" aesthetic, and the fact it went stale faster,[3] it later became popular. In World War II bread slicing machines were effectively banned, as the metal in them was required for wartime use. When they were requisitioned, creating 100 tonnes of metal alloy, the decision proved very unpopular with housewives.[4]